Three things to know: Ryan Carpenter's return, dreams of first place and Brent Burns' wrestling smacktalk

SAN JOSE — On the morning of Dec. 13, center Ryan Carpenter was anticipating having to board a flight to Arizona to join the Barracuda on the road. The Sharks had placed him on waivers the day before and for 24 hours, he didn’t hear a peep about being claimed by another team.

“And at 9 a.m. that morning, I got a call that said I was getting picked up,” by the Vegas Golden Knights, Carpenter said Thursday. “If not, I was going to go play for the Barracuda that night in Tucson. I think they had a flight booked for me.

“Whatever happened, I knew God was in control of it. But I’m happy to still be in the NHL.”

Carpenter will be in the lineup Thursday night against the Sharks as the Golden Knights play their first regular season game at SAP Center.

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Carpenter was a scratch for nine straight games after he came to Vegas as the Golden Knights reeled off eight consecutive wins from Dec. 14 to Jan. 2. He finally got to play Jan. 5 in a game against Chicago and was then in and out of Vegas’ lineup for the next three weeks.

Thursday, though, Carpenter will dress for the fourth straight game. He had a goal and an assist Feb. 4 against Washington and another goal Feb. 6 against Pittsburgh.

“Sometimes you’re just getting bounces,” Carpenter said. “I think I’ve had games where I’ve played really well and the puck hasn’t gone in for our line. When it does go in, just keep going, keep playing hard and simple.”

Carpenter signed a new two-year deal with the Sharks in the offseason but could never take complete ownership of a fourth-line center role. He went without a point in 10 straight games from Oct. 12 to Nov. 1 and managed just one assist in six other games before he was placed on waivers.

“I played 10 games in a row and there’s plenty of other guys who, if you’re not producing or not living up to expectations, playing up to expectations, there are plenty of other guys who can get the job done,” Carpenter said. “It’s easy to get called up to the NHL but to take a job and earn a spot is harder.”

2. Is a Pacific Division title still in reach for San Jose? The Sharks are 10 points back of Vegas in the division and three other teams — Los Angeles, Calgary and Anaheim — are within two points of San Jose.

Priority No. 1 for the Sharks would be to stay in one of the top three spots in the Pacific to ensure a spot in the postseason. But a regulation time win for the Sharks on Thursday would cut the Vegas’ lead to eight with two more games to go between the two franchises over the final two months. The Sharks lost 5-4 in overtime to the Golden Knights on Nov. 24.

It’s a longshot, but as the Sharks found out first hand last season, anything is possible. San Jose had a nine-point lead in the Pacific with 13 games to go in the regular season, but went 4-9 from that point forward to finish third behind Anaheim and Edmonton.

“You’re always trying to hunt down teams ahead of you,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “That’s always the focus. We don’t want to think about the teams behind us, we’re still trying to concentrate on the teams ahead of us and know that if that’s our mindset, the rest will take care of itself.”

Vegas is wrapping up a six-game road trip in which it has already beaten Calgary, Winnipeg and Washington. The Sharks are playing their first game back after a 2-2-1 road trip.

Such a circumstance has been a problem in the past for the Sharks, namely in 2015-16 when they went 1-8-1. Last year, though, they went 6-2-1 in their first game at home and this season they are 6-0-0.

The Sharks continue to play divisional opponents after Thursday, facing Edmonton, Anaheim, Arizona and Vancouver over the next seven days.

“We got some big games coming up against some divisional teams, so this is a big stretch for us,” Sharks center Logan Couture said Thursday. “Starting with a home game after a long trip, in the past, we haven’t been as successful as we’d like to be.”

3. WrestleMania, here we come?: Sharks defenseman Brent Burns engaged in some banter with the WWE’s Bludgeon Brothers, who sport beards that are even longer than his and Thornton’s.

The Bludgeon Brothers appear in the pro wrestling show “SmackDown.” But the WWE show “RAW” is the one coming to SAP Center on Monday, so Luke Harper — one of the Brothers — tweeted Wednesday “Lucky that Raw is heading to San Jose next week and not the BLUDGEON brand. Rowan told me he doesn’t like the look of these 2. Hey @sanjosesharks tell the boys to keep their heads up.”

Burns replied , “Would love to drop some elbows from the top rope with jumbo!! See ya Monday!”

No word on if Doug Wilson went into cardiac arrest after seeing that tweet.

Harper and Erick Rowan comprise the wrestling duo.

Burns said Thursday, “I know one of the guys. Got to know him the last couple years. I was a wrestling guy when I was younger and kind of got away from it, just not much time. But my (son Jagger) is obsessed with John Cena.”